Prepaid billing solutions for push-to-talk in a wireless communications network

Abstract

Advanced group services for use in a mobile phone network include a prepaid billing solution. In the mobile phone network, a real-time exchange interfaces to at least one mobile switching center to provide the advanced group services therein. Both the real-time exchange and the mobile phones that use the advanced group services communicate with each other using call setup and in-band signaling within the mobile phone network, wherein the real-time exchange switches the voice frames for the advanced group services between the mobile phones across bearer paths and through at least one mobile switching center in the mobile phone network. A real-time billing mechanism is provided for a prepaid subscriber of the advanced group services. The real-time billing mechanism may use a prefix-based billing solution or a charging number based billing solution.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. Section 119(e) of the following co-pending and commonly-assigned patent application:[0002]U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 61 / 310,245, filed on Mar. 3, 2010, by Narasimha Raju Nagubhai, Ravi Shankar Kumar, Krishnakant M. Patel and Ravi Ayyasamy, entitled “PREPAID BILLING SOLUTIONS AND OTHER ENHANCEMENTS FOR PUSH-TO-TALK,”[0003]which application is incorporated by reference herein.[0004]This application is related to the following commonly-assigned patent applications:[0005]U.S. Utility application Ser. No. 10 / 515,556, filed Nov. 23, 2004, by Gorachand Kundu, Ravi Ayyasamy and Krishnakant Patel, entitled “DISPATCH SERVICE ARCHITECTURE FRAMEWORK,” now U.S. Pat. No. 7,787,896, issued Aug. 31, 2010, which application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. Section 365 of P.C.T. International Application Serial Number PCT / US03 / 16386, which application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. Sectio...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

However, a dedicated private network is costly to install and maintain and is employed by a few public wireless carriers.

Also, the IDEN system is non-standard, and hence cannot be used in standard wireless communications networks, such as those based on GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access).

While this approach promises compliance with newer and emerging standards, such as GPRS (General Packet Radio Service), UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), etc., it does not provide a solution for carriers employing wireless communications systems based on existing standards, such as GSM, CDMA, etc.

However, even for the newer standards, solutions based on VoIP have serious drawbacks, including slower call setup, significant overhead, increased susceptibility to packet losses, low bit rate voice coders, and significant modifications to the mobile handset.

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